Broken Diamonds, Shattered Tears
by Dark Angel 8980
Summary: Xanxus broke Bel's crown on his birthday and now Bel won't talk to anyone. Can Fran uncover Bel's secrets in time?  BelXFran in later chapters... Don't like? Don't read.
1. Shattered

Hello! Welcome to the new story... I hope you like it and keep a look out for the rest of the chapters!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN! Sadly.

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Belphegor buried his face into the downy pillow of his huge bed. He laid face down, spread out over the lavish covers, but he felt no comfort. He felt anger. He felt the wet tear stain press against his cheek. He felt lost.

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He had skipped into Xanxus's office the day before to announce that it was his birthday and the boss should come down to celebrate with the rest of the Varia. Xanxus had taken one look at Bel, pulled out his gun and before the prince could react, shot it. The bullet missed Bel's head... but had hit his crown and shattered it before lodging itself in the wall behind him. Belphegor stood rooted to the spot, too shocked to move, and then slowly, he reached his thin fingers into his hair where they brushed against shards of the broken tiara.

He stumbled backwards, speechless. His mouth was absent of its usual smile and hung wide. "Get... out..." Xanxus's voice growled from the other side of the room. Bel could not look at him, could not lift his eyes to see his boss sitting in his comfy chair. Bel turned and took one step towards the door, before bolting out of the room. Distantly he could hear Xanxus yelling for him to shut the door behind him but Bel did not stop, he didn't even pause until he reached his room.

He reached for the handle, but could not see. His vision blurred as tears welled in his eyes. A drop fell onto his outstretched hand. The tears hurt. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried.

Fran watched silently from down the hall as Bel leaned against his door and sobbed. There was a part of the glittering tiara clutched in one of his hands, but as Fran stood there, it clattered to the ground. The prince didn't seem to notice.

Eventually, the flow of Bel's tears slowed. Sniffing, he gripped the handle and opened his door. He stepped through to the inner chamber and quietly shut the door behind himself. Fran stood frozen in the empty hallway. The rest of the Varia had heard the goings on from the living room downstairs but only Fran had thought anything of it. When he heard Xanxus begin to shout for Bel to shut the door, Fran had excused himself to see what had happened.

As quietly as he could, Fran crept down the corridor. The shard of Bel's crown still lay on the carpet in front of the prince's door, forgotten. Fran bent to pick it up, but almost dropped it as one of the edges sliced into his skin. As he straightened up, he froze. From inside the prince's room, Fran could hear Bel's sobs. He seemed to be screaming into his pillow. Muffled rage and anguish echoed through the door.

"Voi... What the hell?" The swords man's voice was quieter than usual but there was no chance Bel would hear it over his pain.

Wordlessly, Fran held up the piece of the crown. Squalo nodded once before saying, "Ha, a prince without a crown? He can't hold anything over us now, can he?" The shark snorted and then turned and headed back downstairs.

Fran looked down at the crown again. They didn't understand, Bel without a crown was like Xanxus not wanting to be Vongola Tenth. It just wasn't possible. It wasn't right.

Slowly, Fran walked back to his room. He couldn't even imagine what the prince must be going through. He had never seen Bel upset about _anything_ before and to hear him crying his heart out into his pillow had unnerved the Frog.

* * *

It had been a week and Bel still hadn't emerged from his room. In the presence of others, that is. Fran had witnessed the prince creeping into the kitchen in the middle of the night once to get food. As Fran watched from the shadows of the door way, Bel reached out and ran his fingers over one of the magnets Lussuria had stuck on the refrigerator. It was an image of Mammon grumpily looking up from a stack of money. Fran jumped as Bel spoke into the silent darkness.

"I wish you were still here," Bel's voice cracked from disuse. "Things were better when you were still here. I miss you mammon, I can't talk to the frog the way I could talk to you."

Fran retreated as Bel pulled open the refrigerator. He was shocked at what he had just heard. Fran knew Bel had been close to the arcobaleno, but he had never imagined that Bel wanted to be close to him too.

As Fran walked back through the living room to go back to bed, he saw the stack of unopened presents. They were Bel's Christmas and birthday presents. He had never gotten a chance to open them. Unable to look at the gloomy heap any longer, Fran climbed the stairs back to his room.

Inside, Fran stood in front of his dressing table. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, for once without the frog hat. He only ever took it off to sleep. He could have gone without wearing it this past week due to the prince's absence, but he felt too guilty to do so. Around the mirror were his things, but what caught his eye was one of Lussuria's gifts. It was a picture of the Varia standing outside of headquarters. They were all lined up, being their usual selves. On the right side, Bel's face grinned up at him as he had an arm slung around Fran's shoulders which the frog was trying grumpily trying to shrug off.

Fran sighed, something inside of him wanted Bel to go back to his usual princely self. Fran wanted him to smile again, and he had an idea as to what would make that happen.

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	2. Hidden Reasons

SECOND CHAPTER!  
Hidden Reasons  
by ~ DarkAngel8980  
Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN

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Fran sighed as the soft thudding on the inside of the door indicated that Bel had thrown yet more knives in his direction in another non-verbal response. He had been attempting to convince Bel to open the door for almost half an hour and the only response he was getting was those wicked sharp knives thrown at him. Bel wouldn't even open his mouth to tell the frog to go away. The prince was really depressed and Fran was beginning to worry.

He had spent the past week going everywhere he could think of to try and find the prince a new crown, one that Fran hoped he would accept and – and what? What exactly did he want? He knew he wanted the prince to feel better and to smile again in that demonic way of his. Any smile would do, any smile would be better than that sad scene he had seen at midnight in the kitchen the other week, but it felt like there was something else, something unidentifiable under the surface. Fran sighed again, he really wanted to help his sempai but Bel just wouldn't accept his assistance.

The small package Fran was holding was light in his hands as he set it gently in front of the prince's door. The prince came out of his room every night to get food and Fran hoped Bel would take the gift then. He really didn't want his hard work to meet the same fate of Bel's birthday presents.

***Fran had placed the presents in front of Bel's door a few days ago, but apparently the prince had spurned them all. The Varia had been woken in the early hour of the morning by a quick succession of crashes immediately followed by the resounding crack of a gunshot (the boss's response to any disturbance was to shoot one of his X-guns as a call for silence) then a pause and another last crash, louder than the others before silence fell again. Fran, who had the closest room to Bel's came around the corner just in time to see the prince's door click shut.

Looking to the right, Fran saw the mangled outlines of the presents Bel had been throwing at the wall. _You're welcome and I'll be sure to buy something that expensive again._ Fran thought. The gift the frog had bought wasn't fragile but he certainly didn't appreciate it being thrown somewhere, discarded like so much trash. Three days before the prince's birthday, Fran had seen some very nice boots in a shop window and decided to splurge and get them for his sempai. He turned away from the dark heap of presents in disgust, _God, Bel was so spoiled._ But then he stopped. _No, he's upset, he just lost something really important, I shouldn't be thinking like that._ Fran walked back to his room and, passing a sleepy shark, muttered that nothing was wrong and that Bel was just still angry.***

As Fran stood up, he read once more the words on the top of the box. _A crown for a prince._ It was short, simple and he hoped that Bel would read it and look inside... not to mention accept the crown.

It wasn't quite like the one he had had before as Fran had _no_ idea where the prince had gotten it. The one in the box was the one of the only ones he could find without jewels in it. He had avoided those knowing that the prince preferred metal and that any jewels inlayed in the object would soon fall out due to the kind of life the Varia led.

Fran turned and walked back to his room. There was nothing much to do now except wait until it was dinner time. The shark would be cooking tonight as Lussuria was out on a mission with the blundering Levi.

Half an hour later, Fran was walking toward the stairs, but when he reached the hallway with Bel's room, he stopped. The box was gone. He walked up to Bel's door and pressed his ear against it. The noise emanating through the door sent ice stabbing through his heart. "Dumb frog, I don't need your fucking condescension." The prince growled. Fran was shocked he'd never heard that sort of tone from his sempai before. There was a crack from inside the room and Fran knew without having to see that Bel had just broken the crown. "You stupid mist guardian, you think you can just give me another crown and everything will be okay? Fucking Fran, you don't know anything. Mammon... Mammon, you knew me didn't you? My friend... my poor lost friend."

There was the sound of rising emotion in Belphegor's voice and Fran took a shocked step backwards. Had his present really hurt the prince so much? He was desperate to know why the crown was so irreplaceable. Was there something special about it or was Bel just being ornery? These thoughts swirled through the frog's mind as he walked down to dinner.

* * *

Xanxus would know... he should at least, shouldn't he? Fran had made up his mind during dinner that he was going to go talk to Xanxus and ask what the deal was with Bel's crown.

Fran knocked on the door, not too loud so as not to piss the boss off before he had even begun talking. Xanxus's voice came from inside, lazily calling to come in.

"Oh, Fran, what do you want?" Xanxus turned his back to Fran and reached for his after dinner glass of wine. Fran knew he wasn't Xanxus's favorite guardian and that there was no reason for Xanxus to give his full attention so this stand-offish behavior didn't shock him.

"I was just wondering if there was any significance to Bel's crown. He does seem to be going a little over the top with his 'mourning'" Fran posed his inquiry as a statement... a statement he buttered up just a little bit to keep the boss from thinking he was blaming Xanxus for anything because that would never go over well.

"Tch, why should I know? The private affairs of my subordinates don't concern me unless they affect their ability to work." He paused glancing at the frog and sizing him up. "Any particular reason for the sudden question?"

Damn his boss was sharp, but Fran played off his excuse with another lie woven in with the truth. "I got him another crown today so that he could stop sniveling about the old one, but he broke it and said he didn't want my sympathy." Fran hated lying. Xanxus really shouldn't have done what he did no matter what his reasoning was, and Fran didn't think Bel's reactions were _that_ over the top, he just wanted to understand why Bel had rejected Fran's good will so harshly.

"Bought him anoth – I see." Another pause as Xanxus glanced down at his desk in thought. "Well, there is one thing, I'm not sure how important it is but there is this one thing I saw once."

Xanxus paused for so long that Fran thought he was never going to answer. "Sir..." he prodded gently.

"You are aware that the stupid prince never takes that crown off or lets anyone else touch it?" Fran nodded wondering where Xanxus was going with this. "Well, once I saw that baby, Mammon, holding that crown. I'm not sure where Bel was that day but I distinctly remember seeing the arcobaleno holding the crown. I only remember it because only the day before Squalo tried to take it as a prank and Bel almost went mad."

Fran frowned. Mammon again, the frog felt like he was going in circles. There was something connecting Mammon and the crown, but he could have guessed that from what he had overheard Bel say in the past few weeks.

Fran thanked the boss politely and then turned to leave, but suddenly remembered something, building up his courage, he turned back around and asked Xanxus another question. "One more thing, why _did_ you shoot his crown anyways? Or was it just an accident?" Xanxus scowled at this and Fran sincerely hoped that he hadn't gone too far with that question.

Finally the boss answered him. "Bad day." That was all he said, plain and simple, except for the unconscious glance at the picture of the Varia framed and propped on his desk presumably set there by Lussuria. Fran nodded and, thanking the boss again, left the room.

So that was what was behind the fiery temper of that afternoon. I was well known within the members of the Varia that there was something more than friendship between Squalo and the boss. Apparently, this was the root of the boss's bad mood. The look that Xanxus had had in his eyes made that all too clear. As he had glanced at the picture, Fran had seen longing chasing hurt across the boss's red eyes.

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	3. Numb My Pain

THIRD CHAPTER!

Numb My Pain

by ~ DarkAngel8980

Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN

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Fran gasped and gripped the frog-shaped hat tighter as the pain ripped through his chest. The tears wouldn't come even though he had never been more miserable, there was no salt water to stain his cheeks. There was nothing like those drops he had seen marring the face of his senpai.

But the pain was there inside. That baby. That stupid mist arcobaleno. Mammon.

The pain stabbed into Fran's heart again and he bit back a scream of rage and jealousy. That baby was taking Fran's prince away from him and he wasn't even alive.

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The next morning he woke expecting more pain, but only to be greeted by numbness. _His_ prince? Fran rolled over and kicked the frog hat onto the floor... hard. What the hell had he been thinking last night? Bel didn't fucking belong to him! Fran scowled at the face in the mirror as he stood up. He was being _so_ stupid about this whole thing. He sighed, the purple triangles under his eyes were smeared. Tear tracks, tinted purple, were running down his face. He wiped the remnants off viciously and picked up the purple eyeliner, ready to draw new ones before he stopped.

Fran stared at his pale face for a moment, cocking his head to the side as he thought. Slowly, he raised the purple pen to his cheek and drew a triangle, coloring it in almost mechanically. He drew a matching one on the other cheek and then stepped back a bit. On his cheeks were two triangles. They were not the ones he usually drew, but instead were what had adorned Mammon's tiny face.

He scowled and threw the eye pencil, it snapped in two as it collided with the mirror, leaving a purple smear. Before he could wipe the marks from his face, his door banged open without warning.

"VOOOIII! Breakfast is waiting, come on brat, get moving!" Fran didn't say anything, he merely followed Squalo out of his room and down to the breakfast table.

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"Fran honey, what are you doing with that scone? You just ate, are you still hungry? I could make you something else..." Lussuria stopped Fran at the bottom of the stairs.

Turning, Fran sighed. "I thought Bel might be hungry." He continued up the staircase leaving Lussuria to shake his head and walk back into the kitchen.

A few moments later, Fran stopped outside of Bel's door. He didn't know what it was but there was something that made him constantly worry about the prince. It made him want to do things, like bring him food. Fran rolled his eyes, he was being ridiculous again.

He knocked softly on his sempai door. There was a rustle, sounding like bed covers moving, and then silence.

Fran almost jumped when the voice came from close to the door. "What do you want?" The prince's voice was muffled, but Fran could tell he was tired and slightly irritated. Fran reckoned that his knock had woken Bel.

* * *

"I've got food." The person on the other side of the door said and Bel opened it a crack. He recognized Fran's form, his hand holding the blurry shape of some kind of bread. He blinked rapidly behind his hair, trying to clear the sleepiness from his eyes. Finally, Fran came into focus. There was a scone in his hand which looked good but what drew his gaze were the marks on the frog's cheeks.

He slammed the door shut with such force that something fell off his wall. He didn't bother looking. "You're not Mammon, just go away!"

"Sempai, I—"

"Go away or I'll kill you." He punctuated his words by pushing a knife all the way through the two inch thick wood. On the other side of the door he heard the stupid frog's footsteps retreating. He kicked the door in anger. What the hell did that idiot think he was doing putting Mammon's marks on his face, was he trying to torture him?

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Fran's eyes snapped open. It was the middle of the night, there shouldn't be anyone up... and yet, the creak that had tugged him awake came again. Oh, shit. He sat up, his thoughts going to Bel. Was he wandering around again? He hadn't been out of his room since his crown had been...his crown. He was going after Xanxus for revenge. The worst case scenarios flooding his mind in the darkness. But if he was going after Xanxus, he was about to get himself killed.

Fran jumped out of bed, landing as silently as he could on the floor. Quickly, he crossed to the door and eased it open. Looking out, he caught a glimpse of someone rounding the corner at the end of the hall.

In the direction of Squalo's room.

Oh, oh shit. Xanxus wasn't just going to kill Bel, he was going to kill him painfully. Fran sprinted down the hall after him. He was sure it was him, he was shorted than any of the other members of the Varia. He rounded the corner and saw Bel leaning over the shark's door.

"Bel! What do you think you're doing?" Fran whisper-shouted at the prince. Bel ignored him and resumed picking the lock on Squalo's door. "Bel!" He tried again to get the prince's to stop, but this time Bel didn't even look up.

Bel was going to be in deep shit if Fran didn't do anything. He ran forward and grabbed Bel's shoulders, pulling him away from the door. "Bel you can't do that, Xanxus will—" Bel threw Fran off of him, he stumbled backwards, almost falling.

"So let him! I bet it'll be fun." Bel turned away again, back to the door.

"What are you going to do? Kill Squalo?" Fran reached for Bel again and pulled his arm away from the door knob.

"DON'T GET IN MY WAY!" Bel screamed and punched Fran, hard in the face. His nose cracked, and he stumbled back again, shocked, blood beginning to run down his mouth. Regaining balance, he struck at his sempai, realizing that Bel was not going to listen to reason. Bel stumbled backwards but quickly righted himself and came at Fran again, striking his head before Fran could throw up his arms to block. Bel grabbed a clump of Fran's hair and jerked his head back. Fran screamed in pain and struck out at Bel blindly, hitting him hard in the stomach.

"VOOII! What the fuck is going on here?" They barely heard Squalo as he came running out of his room. Fran struck out at Bel again, this time getting Bel to release him before he was yanked backwards, a sword extending from behind his line of site towards Bel. "What the hell are you two brats doing in the middle of the night in front of my door? ANSWER ME!" Squalo yelled, his voice crashing through the hallway.

"Hey guys, I know we're having fun beating each other to a pulp, but Xanxus woke up from the noise and he's pissed." Lussuria had appeared around the corner and the other three could now hear Levi's voice pleading with Xanxus that he needed to rest or he would have a head ach in the morning. What bull shit.

Suddenly, there was a thud as Levi was flung into the wall next to the four already gathered members of the Varia and Xanxus came around the corner, one of his guns in his hand, the other in its holster. "What the HELL have you scum been DOING!" Xanxus shouted.

For a second no one spoke and then Bel's eerie laughter started up. "Ushishishi... I am trying to kill your lover, Xanxus... or is he just your toy?" Fran, who had looked up into Xanxus's face when Bel had started speaking, saw the tiniest tightening of the boss's eyes.

"Squalo is neither my lover nor my toy. GET BACK TO BED, ALL OF YOU!" Squalo's head dropped and his hand released the back of Fran's night shirt. Lussuria grabbed Levi and almost ran back to their hallway, Fran, now free of the battle commanders grip slid past Xanxus as a very beaten looking Squalo slinked back into his room.

Bel, who was about to slide around Xanxus in the same manner as Fran had, was stopped as the boss grabbed his arm. Xanxus stared long and hard into the prince's eyes which were now discernable because some of his bangs had been displaced when Xanxus grabbed him. There were no words exchanged, only Xanxus's burning glare. It was a cold, hard stare and it shook Bel to the core, no matter what happened between his boss and the shark, the loyalty would never die between them. It was a fierce look, a warning. And, as Xanxus released Bel, they both knew it was a warning that would be heeded.

As Bel high-tailed it around the corner, he heard a soft click as Xanxus opened and shut the shark's door.


	4. Tear Stained Memories

Broken Diamonds, Shattered Tears 4

Tear Stained Memories

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Fran, with blood still running down his face, walked quietly into the kitchen. He went to the sink and turned on the cold water. Grabbing a handful of paper towels, he began to dab at his nose, ignoring the water seeping out of the towel and running down his chin. He jumped when the voice came out of the darkness behind him.

"Why did you stop me?" The prince's voice was soft, tired. There was no sign of the arrogance or self-assuredness that usually laced his voice. "And why in HELL did you have Mammon's tattoos on your face?" Fran looked down. He didn't know what to say. He had been trying so hard to get the prince to talk to him and now that he was standing in front of him, Fran couldn't speak. The way his sempai's voice was so broken and yet so angry at the same time disarmed him.

Bel pushed himself away from the door frame, against which he had been leaning, and walked to the refrigerator. Neither of them spoke again until Bel was seated at the table. Fran hadn't moved. Instead, he watched Bel, noticing how the prince seemed to droop and didn't toss his feet on the table in his usual manner. There was so much more wrong here than Bel's crown being broken, his very soul was missing. It may even have been gone for a while and Bel just wasn't up to hiding that fact any longer.

"Just don't do it again, okay?" The prince was looking down at the table. Everything about him was so foreign to the frog. No smiles, no laughter, no haughtiness, he didn't act like a prince; he acted like a broken slave. Before he could really think the action through, Fran had started walking towards Bel's chair. His fingers touched his sempai's shoulder lightly for a few seconds, but in seeing that the touch brought no response, removed them.

"He was supposed to come back." Bel's voice wavered and finally broke on the word 'back'. "We were going to find some way to remove the curse so he wasn't stuck as a baby forever." The prince's shoulders began shaking and he slumped forward onto the table, his head in his arms. Fran was shocked, but he reached out both of his hands this time and began rubbing calming circles into his sempai's back.

Bel's shoulders continued to shake and tears began to slide from his eyes again. "He wanted to live like a normal person, to be able to grow up and change. No one ever had any idea what it was like for him to be stuck as a child forever." Bel sniffed. "He hated everyone looking down on him, he wanted to be a man, he wanted—" He was cut off by a sob and gulped. "He wanted to be with me as an equal. I— we loved each other."

Fran closed his eyes and bit back his own tears. He refused to give in to the pain tearing apart his chest. Instead, he continued rubbing his sempai's back until the sobbing quieted down. Bel hiccupped and sat up a bit. As he did, Fran's hands slid from his back. Bel turned toward the frog slightly. "Why are you still here?" It wasn't a mean question, although it could have been. His voice was surprised, awed almost, it told Fran that he had expected to be abandoned.

"I—you're upset, why wouldn't I be here?" Fran almost kicked himself. Why WOULD he be here? This was the Varia, no one really looked out for anyone else. Stupid question, he needed sleep. "Come on, we should go to bed."

Bel stood up and dropped a hand onto Fran's shoulder. Fran suppressed the urge to move back as the Princes fingers hit fresh bruises from their tussle. He remembered the way his heart had sped during the fight, the adrenaline winding through his body had felt like heaven. "You throw a good punch."

Fran stared after Bel. He might have imagined it, it might have been a trick of the non-existent light, but he thought he had just seen Bel crack a tiny grin.

"Bel—" The blonde turned, "Wait up." They started up the stairs in silence, the grandfather clock in the hallway below making the only noise, their assassins feet silent on the rug.

When they reached the Prince's door, Bel broke the silence. "You do know you still need to wash your face, right? The blood's all gone, but..." He trailed off as he slid his thumb across Fran's cheek. This time, the racing pulse was no longer a memory and the frog was powerless against the shock that pushed him a step backwards. "You can't replace him. Remember that."

The door shut, but Fran couldn't move.

* * *

Bel sighed and paced over to one of the floor to ceiling windows in his room. The moon was only half full, but it was very bright and created soft shadows around the Prince. He sighed and rested his thin fingers against the chilly glass. "Fran... I know you didn't mean for it to hurt."

* * *

Fran yawned as he climbed the stairs, leaving the dark kitchen behind him. The day had been boring as most of the Varia had gone off somewhere. They still hadn't returned and Fran decided he may as well try taking Bel food again. The Prince hadn't answered his knock this morning, but Fran had a feeling it had more to do with his being asleep than him ignoring the frog.

"Bel?" He called, while knocking softly on the door. It slid open, and Fran realized that it hadn't been properly closed. He frowned, and stepped into the room. Bel was nowhere to be seen.

The first thing that hit him was the smell. It smelled like Chinese food...? When the hell had Bel gotten ahold of that? There were clothes everywhere. That was no surprise though and it barely registered in Fran's mind. There was a small pile of smashed and gouged furniture in one corner. Fran grimaced, if Xanxus realized he was going to have to pay to replace furniture Bel had ruined again, there would be a pile of dead bodies twice the size of the stack of broken wood in front of Fran.

There were a stack of papers on the dresser but Fran decided he should probably get the hell out of there. He would be skewered if Bel caught him in his room.

As he stepped out of the room and close the door, he thought he heard something. He froze, listening intently. There was a hum coming from downstairs. Fran identified it as voices out of earshot. It was probably Bel, the only other person in the house was Squalo, but he was probably passed out drunk in his room... as per usual when Xanxus left him alone.

He started down the stairs and the mumbling got a bit louder. It was coming from the living room, he could tell that now. Sometimes the voice would go on for a bit and sometimes there would be a long pause where Fran almost thought he had imagined everything.

He rounded the corner and pushed open the living room door. He was about to call out to his sempai who was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, but the words died on his lips.

"... and you were right, by the way. He didn't draw the triangles on his face in order to hurt me. But it scared me, the way he looked. You remember that picture you used to have of what you looked like before you were turned into a baby? He looked a bit like that." Bel laughed a little. It was a sad, unsure noise. "Like he's the ghost of what you could have been. Just call me Ebenezer Scrooge, I guess."

Bel fell silent and Fran began to wonder whether he should announce his presence or simply slink away. He remained standing however as Bel began talking again.

"Now, don't get a big head." There was another pause and Fran frowned, having no idea what Bel was on about. "I see, you think he's hansom, but you don't think he looks like you. For a second I was wondering if you were getting an inflated ego. But I guess I see what you mean. He could be attractive... if he wasn't EAVESDROPPING!" Bel leapt off the couch and turned glaring at Fran. Three knives appeared from nowhere and landed in the arms Fran had thrown up in an attempt to appear less threatening. "GET OUT, just get out! Why are you here? Leave me alone!" Bel's mood changed faster than Fran could blink and by the time the Prince said the last three words, he had fallen back down to the couch and had begun to sob.

Fran, recovering from the surprise, quickly crossed the room and, kneeling beside Bel, reached out a hand to try and soothe the Prince. He got slapped instantly. It didn't stop him. Instead, he caught the offending hand and pinned it against the couch. Bel glared up at him from behind his tear streaked hair. "I want to help you. I know you're upset and I have no idea what you might be feeling, but I want to try and help you feel better." Bel turned his face away into the pillow before replying.

"You can't make me feel better." His voice was muffled, but the words came through clearly. "Mammon could have, but you don't know how." The last word dissolved into another sob.

Fran sighed and released Bel's wrist because the Prince was no longer fighting him. The frog shifted his hands and began to rub along the Prince's back like he had begun to do the other day.

As his fingers worked, Bel slowly began to quiet. The sobbing calmed and eventually subsided to silent tears. A few minutes later and Bel had drifted into a light sleep. Fran kept going, afraid that stopping the motion would awaken the sleeping Prince.


End file.
